Perrysburg comes alive with ‘The Sound of Music’

You have to admire a show that knows what its hit
tunes are and then works them to their fullest measure.That’s certainly the case
with "The Sound of Music." Bang-bang-bang, the show delivers the big
songs starting with the title tune in the second scene, the standard "My
Favorite Things" and "Do-Re-Mi," only holding back "Climb
Ev’ry Mountain" for the rousing Act 1 closer.Nobody’s leaving at
intermission after a first act like that, especially if its presented by a group
such as the Perrysburg Musical Theatre where the audience gets to see friends
and family decked out in nun habits and sailor suits.The Perrysburg company is
presenting the venerable Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein musical Friday at
7 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 7 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. in the Perrysburg High
School Auditorium.Of course, all that lovely stagecraft is for naught, if a
troupe doesn’t have the cast – in this instance 88 in all, enough for each key
on a piano – to pull it off. We’ve see Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer in
these roles.

PMT hits the mark. Betsy Hermann
asserts herself from her first number which has her singing "The Sound of
Music" off to the side with only a spotlight for scenery. She has a sure
voice, and the enthusiasm needed for portray Maria, the vivacious nun. During
her interview with Mother Abbess (Peg Damschroder) her gestures betray a
showgirl hiding underneath her habit.Once she’s shipped off to the home of
Captain Georg Von Trapp (Michael Searle) to watch over his brood of seven
children, her extroverted nature is released.Searle offers a sure portrayal of
the captain. He makes clear early on that his disciplinary actions, while owing
from his background as a naval hero, are a desperate attempt to control his
children. He brings to the role a robust bass that flows beautifully with
Hermann’s voice on their duet "Something Good."He brings together both
his acting and musical talent in his touching solo on "Edelweiss."Such
finely nuanced performances are essential in musical theater where plot and
character development is compressed in order to make way for the songs and
production numbers.Those numbers put together by the production team of
directors Carrie Sanderson and Kathy Belsole, musical director Michael Kadin
Craig, and choreographer Clark Ausloos are impressive, yet never strain the
hoofing abilities of the cast. The singing is excellent, and the pit orchestra
deserves a nod for providing the instrumental color and commentary.The strains
of the musical’s keynote songs are reprised throughout charting the emotional
arc of the show.The troupe has even added a few numbers during the final concert
section featuring the 40-voice Salzberg Children’s Choir.The show also double
casts the Von Trapp children. The performance reviewed was the cast that will
appear Friday and the Saturday matinee. (Christy Wilken, Nathan Rowland Miller,
Julia Dieckhoner, Michael Nahhas, Bethany Dieckhoner, Rowan Creps and Lindsay
Sanderson; Saturday night and Sunday matinee children: Abby Newman, Alex
Gallerno, Emma Hayward, Jonathon Ford, Kayla Williams, Emily Zawodny and Faith
Bierley.)Christy Wilkin’s Liesl has a sure connection with Maria, as two young
ladies, not so far removed in age, even if their positions in life are
different. And Lindsay Sanderson as Gretl is a scene stealer.Lane Hakel as Max
Detweiler and Sharon Sitek-Dendinger as the captain’s fiancee Elsa provide a
fine cosmopolitan and cynical contrast to all that juvenile sweetness.
Sitek-Dendinger does seem in a certain way to be a fine match for the captain
were he to embrace the more compromised existence necessary for an Austria on
the brink of the Nazi takeover. Hakel is a hoot as the cynical, self-serving
impresario who in the end facilitates the Von Trapps escape from the Nazis.The
audience though is unlikely to slip from the grip of the charms and strains of
"Sound of Music" so easily. Those tunes just won’t let go.